Council rebuffs PP on Mzuzu rally
Mzuzu City Council (MCC) last week rejected a notice from former ruling People’s Party (PP) for its leader Joyce Banda to address a political rally at Chibavi Primary School ground in the city yesterday.
PP deputy publicity secretary Ackson Kalaile-Banda said, the council said it had rejected the notice because it was submitted late.
He said they submitted the notice last Tuesday to have the meeting on Sunday, but MCC said the notice was short of the seven-day requirement.
Said Kalaile-Banda: “This has disturbed us because we had already invested in planning for the meeting. The ground is free and authorities at the school assured us that we could go ahead with our meeting.
“As a party that does not believe in squabbles, we have decided to go by what they have told us. We will organise another meeting in Mzuzu, but that will be after we hold our convention on August 30, but this is a serious inconvenience.”
On his part, MCC chief executive officer McLoud Kadammanja said he could not comment on the issue as he was out of office, but said the council’s director of planning and development Alexander Chirambo was best placed to answer.
But when contacted, Chirambo said he did not received any notice from PP.
He said: “If the letter came to the council, I would have seen it. I don’t know who gave that response to PP. But still, the party was supposed to give the seven days notice.”
Joyce Banda, who ruled Malawi between April 2012 and May 2014 following the death of former president Bingu wa Mutharika, returned to Malawi early this year after almost three years in self-imposed exile.
She has declared interest to contest in next year’s elections.
Political and governance expert Henry Chingaipe told The Nation days before Banda’s return that if she was coming to contest for presidency, it was a sign that she was being misled.
